Competition dress choice; heel height; re-wearing dresses; & salsa/mambo question

ProgressNotPerfection said:
Idk what style your Latin dress is, but I’ve worn THESE for many years for that exact purpose. If you get a color that matches either your skin or the color of the fishnets (there are 6 colors available), I bet you could wear them underneath the fishnets without them being noticeable. And they are very comfortable, not constrictive like shapewear.
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They show when your skirt spins, alas. Even under fishnets. At least, mine did. So, like you, I sucked it up and endured thigh rub. Which, IME, fishnets make less troublesome. YMMV.
 
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blackswan said:
I am not an expert on any of these topics
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Seriously? You sure sound like an expert to me!

Salsa was the first dance I learned at my intro & beginner lessons with my first teacher. My current pro & I worked on it more as we got into the bronze syllabus, so when we started mambo a couple months ago, the basics came fairly easily due to the similarities between the two dances.

But there are LOTS of significant differences in technique & style & presentation & mood - which I can’t describe adequately due to my beginner status. Put it this way: no one watching my pro perform the two dances (with a dance partner, not with a student) would think they were the same dance. Not even close.
 
ProgressNotPerfection said:
I do 100% of my practicing with bare legs and nothing in my shoes except my feet.

For the rhythm portion of the recent virtual comp, I wore capezio professional weight fishnets. Professional weight means they are crazy STRONG. You can stick sharp-edged fake nails into them and they won’t tear; and like rels77 said, they have a specially made solid piece on the bottom of the feet, so they don’t make your sandals uncomfortable or let your feet slide around (as if!).

For the smooth portion, though, I took off the fishnets & went bare legged like usual.

From what I’ve read on DF, dancing with or without socks/hose/tights is a subject most women feel very strongly about one way or the other. It’s usually either “I can’t imagine sticking my dirty feet directly into my shoes” or “I can’t imagine having anything come between my feet and my shoes” - and I’m in the latter camp.

But back to your question, what specifically is it about tights that you think you’d prefer over fishnets?
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so, I am not sure that it always boils solely down to personal preference....sometimes it is about judges and one's pro and one's fitness/age....all things being the same, I would love to opt for bare leg and there was a time when I rocked a deep enough tan and had fierce legs and could do that ...it is always safest in terms of what judges want to see (or not see) to wear hose...it's a pain for the emergency bathroom run, but you had better be right about your legs if you are going to compete without them...it is also easy enough to cut them at crotch or toe in order to tolerate them
 
ProgressNotPerfection said:
Seriously? You sure sound like an expert to me!

Salsa was the first dance I learned at my intro & beginner lessons with my first teacher. My current pro & I worked on it more as we got into the bronze syllabus, so when we started mambo a couple months ago, the basics came fairly easily due to the similarities between the two dances.

But there are LOTS of significant differences in technique & style & presentation & mood - which I can’t describe adequately due to my beginner status. Put it this way: no one watching my pro perform the two dances (with a dance partner, not with a student) would think they were the same dance. Not even close.
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No, by no means an expert, just a passionate and enthusiastic amateur :) Salsa is a great beginning social dance, as it gets you moving in a fluid manner and familiar with basics of rhythm and musicality. And many of the syllabus figures are also used in mambo - cross body lead, underarm turn, etc. And I don't know what differences you are seeing when your pro dances both, but if you watch top pros in the salsa world - YouTube Karen y Ricardo - and compare to American Rhythm mambo, the differences are evident. Crazy tricks and consecutive numbers of spins, for one thing, in current salsa. But another question is - are the two dances influencing each other at all at this point? I have no idea. Because I am not an expert :cool:
 
fascination said:
so, I am not sure that it always boils solely down to personal preference....sometimes it is about judges and one's pro and one's fitness/age....all things being the same, I would love to opt for bare leg and there was a time when I rocked a deep enough tan and had fierce legs and could do that ...it is always safest in terms of what judges want to see (or not see) to wear hose...it's a pain for the emergency bathroom run, but you had better be right about your legs if you are going to compete without them...it is also easy enough to cut them at crotch or toe in order to tolerate them
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Agreed. If any part of my legs showed under my smooth dress, I would have left on the fishnets I wore with my rhythm dress. (But in the beginning bronze syllabus, we don’t really do anything that shows any leg above the ankle.)

And another thing (warning, mild rant coming) - my smooth dress is backless down to the waist. The waistband of the fishnets SHOWS at the waist of the dress. So I followed DF advice and cut out the stupid waistband of the stupid fishnets (the tight waistband was creating a stupid muffin top anyway, so good riddance). But then the stupid fishnets rolled down to the crotch of the bodysuit, since there was no longer enough elastic to hold them up, so it’s a damn good thing the dress HAS a bodysuit; otherwise, the fishnets would have continued rolling on down to my knees. Apparently this means that the bodysuit in the dress is not tight enough, since it should have held the fishnets in place even after their waistband was removed. That’s what happens when you buy a used dress and compete in it before you get it altered to fit you.

And all of this is why I decided to go bare-legged under my smooth dress.

Rant over.
 
I used to wear the professional dance fishnets. They last forever! They make your legs look great! Then I discovered the basic dance fishnets. They are much softer and much easier on the waistline (no muffin top). They still get the job done. I'll never go back to the professional grade fishnets unless there is a really good reason.
 
Oddly enough I like the industrial strength ones...but I have a high pain threshold...I even sort of miss them but I do snip them in the toe for Latin because my long toes hang over and I use them...and I would generally cut out the crotch I f I was going to be likely to have to dance for a long while with call backs in case of fast potty break...some gowns just don't come off fast enough
 
Well Rounded said:
I used to wear the professional dance fishnets. They last forever! They make your legs look great! Then I discovered the basic dance fishnets. They are much softer and much easier on the waistline (no muffin top). They still get the job done. I'll never go back to the professional grade fishnets unless there is a really good reason.
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Can you recommend a brand? I like soft! Thanks.
 
worddancer said:
Can you recommend a brand? I like soft! Thanks.
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One brand is Capezio Studio Basics Fishnet. Keep in mind they do not have the smooth sole (which I don't like anyway). This is not necessarily my preferred brand. Anything similar to this will probably work. They also do not last as long as the industrial strength type.
 
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